Every once in a while for no reason, zha will write an essay. Just randomly. This one I got a few days ago, and wanted to share it. (Yes, I got permission) He's one of my favorite writers, and this is why:
Favorite movies by inhaesio zha
Included below is a list of my top 10 favorite movies. This
list represents a compromise between my "I think these
movies are the best made" list and my "These movies agree
with my preferences the best" list...so, while I think Kundun
is the best paced/edited movie ever, it's not on my list
because a story about the Dali L[l]ama doesn't really move
me, and True Romance isn't on my list because, even though
the story and writing strikes my fancy very pleasantly, there
are aspects of the acting and moviemaking that aren't so
great.
Here are my top 10 favorite movies:
1. The Insider
2. Pulp Fiction
3. Natural Born Killers (the director's cut)
4. Apocalypse Now (the director's cut)
5. Leaving Las Vegas
6. Silence of the Lambs
7. Casino
8. Hamlet 2000
9. Requiem for a Dream
10. Lolita (the Jeremy Irons/Dominique Swain version)
You may notice the conspicuous absense of Dark City and
Gattaca, two of my favorite movies, from this list. Blade
Runner is also missing. While I think these movies,
especially Blade Runner and Dark City, are truly excellent
movies, I find that, from my particular chair in the
universe, almost all science fiction is less impactful than
more "realistic" types of fiction; hence, there are no sci-fi
movies on my top ten list, and only two movies that are
highly stylized visually in a way that makes them less
classically, literally realistic (Natural Born Killers and
Requiem for a Dream). Other movies that I like, but that
don't make this list are Heat, Taxi Driver, Moulin Rouge,
Magnolia, Pi, A Clockwork Orange, The Usual Suspects, The
Royal Tenenbaums, Se7en, U Turn, The Piano, Dangerous
Liasons, Das Boot, The Red Violin, Fight Club, and Jesus of
Montreal. Heat doesn't make the list because, while it's an
excellent example of a well-paced long (3.5 hour) movie, and
it has great semi-realistic cops and robbers stuff, it lacks
a universal human appeal, which I think characterizes all the
movies in my list. Taxi Driver, while certainly a solid 4-
star movie, lacks the supreme ease of flow that Scorcese
demonstrates in Kundun and Casino. Moulin Rouge, while
breakthrough in its stylism, and a palatable love story (high
compliment from me), is weak in some of the musical numbers
in the third quarter of its progression. Etcetera. Keep in
mind that I put this together in one night, so it's
quite possible I haven't even thought of a few movies that
would be in my top 10.
The movies I've chosen are contemporary American movies. I
live in contemporary America...I'm not suited to liking
French character dramas. Notice that two of the top 10 (#2
and #3) were written by Quentin Tarantino. Also, two of my
top 10 (#1 and #7) are adapted from true stories. Notice
that there are no comedies on my top 10 list. Notice that in
9 of the 10 (excluding #1), someone gets killed, and in 8 of
the 10 a main character gets killed. Here are some brief
notes on why I like each of these movies:
1. The Insider
- no one dies, no one has sex, the dramatic climax is
embodied in an act that happens a hundred times in an
hour of sitting with someone, that people hardly ever
think about
- based on a true story, a story with extreme social
relevance, and a story that most people don't think is
very dramatic
- Al Pacino, Russel Crowe, and Diane Venora: awesome
- The Insider and American Beauty were nominated for Best
Picture in the same year. American Beauty won: the
Academy is smoking crack. That was the last year I
paid any attention to who won Best Picture, because
when American Beauty won over The Insider, the award
became meaningless to me.
2. Pulp Fiction
- This is the best screenplay ever written. It is the
best example of writing in the screenplay genre.
- This is the most relevant, most reflective movie made
about 1990s thought culture. If aliens came to me and
said, "We want to learn as much as we can in two
hours about American thought culture in the 1990s.", I
would tell them to watch Pulp Fiction.
3. Natural Born Killers (the director's cut)
- If the aliens had four hours, I would have tell them
to watch Pulp Fiction and Natural Born Killers.
- Juliette Lewis is brilliant. This is her best role.
4. Apocalypse Now (the director's cut)
- my favorite war movie
- The humor, like that in Natural Born Killers, makes
this movie superior to war tellings that aim to be
more strictly, classically realistic. You can keep
a straight face and hit me and it will hurt, but if
you punch me while you're laughing it will hurt more.
5. Leaving Las Vegas
- my favorite love story movie
- one of the best movies ever made that is more or less
about real people (even though they're fictional)
- Nicolas Cage's best role
6. Silence of the Lambs
- my favorite scary movie
- the best psycho villain ever created
- perfect plot symmetry, subtle irony: In a context of
normative, correctional activities (the FBI),
the "heroes", in order to catch a criminal (and save
the day) are forced to release a criminal of greater
magnitude. This is probably the best pop-culture
embodiment of the irony and absurdity that is intrinsic
to the whole idea of legal justice.
7. Casino
- Sharon Stone's best role
- gangster shit
- awesome pacing, interweaving, sequencing of stories:
This is one of the first short-seeming long movies.
Without this movie, I don't think there would have been
Magnolia-, Heat-, or The Insider-type movies: long
movies whose slightly nonlinear progression makes them
go by smoothly. Short Cuts pre-dates all these, but
is a poorer example of this type of pacing.
8. Hamlet 2000
- I just like Hamlet and the scenery in this telling
allows the contemporary mind to relax into the story,
while masterfully presenting the text.
- Hamlet playing with recorded video: good
- Ophelia in the Guggenheim: scary good
9. Requiem for a Dream
- Like Pi, stylistically next. Darren Aronofsky is
inventing the style that television, movies, and new
media will employ in 15-20 years.
10. Lolita (the Jeremy Irons/Dominique Swain version)
- Such a complete portrait of desolation, of tragic
characters, appeals to me.
- The photography doesn't fail to fetishize the violence
that is being exchanged between the four main
characters. In the scene where Irons grabs Swain by
the wrist, the shots are almost completely a bay of
white with red accents. There are other examples in
the film.
Favorite movies by inhaesio zha
Included below is a list of my top 10 favorite movies. This
list represents a compromise between my "I think these
movies are the best made" list and my "These movies agree
with my preferences the best" list...so, while I think Kundun
is the best paced/edited movie ever, it's not on my list
because a story about the Dali L[l]ama doesn't really move
me, and True Romance isn't on my list because, even though
the story and writing strikes my fancy very pleasantly, there
are aspects of the acting and moviemaking that aren't so
great.
Here are my top 10 favorite movies:
1. The Insider
2. Pulp Fiction
3. Natural Born Killers (the director's cut)
4. Apocalypse Now (the director's cut)
5. Leaving Las Vegas
6. Silence of the Lambs
7. Casino
8. Hamlet 2000
9. Requiem for a Dream
10. Lolita (the Jeremy Irons/Dominique Swain version)
You may notice the conspicuous absense of Dark City and
Gattaca, two of my favorite movies, from this list. Blade
Runner is also missing. While I think these movies,
especially Blade Runner and Dark City, are truly excellent
movies, I find that, from my particular chair in the
universe, almost all science fiction is less impactful than
more "realistic" types of fiction; hence, there are no sci-fi
movies on my top ten list, and only two movies that are
highly stylized visually in a way that makes them less
classically, literally realistic (Natural Born Killers and
Requiem for a Dream). Other movies that I like, but that
don't make this list are Heat, Taxi Driver, Moulin Rouge,
Magnolia, Pi, A Clockwork Orange, The Usual Suspects, The
Royal Tenenbaums, Se7en, U Turn, The Piano, Dangerous
Liasons, Das Boot, The Red Violin, Fight Club, and Jesus of
Montreal. Heat doesn't make the list because, while it's an
excellent example of a well-paced long (3.5 hour) movie, and
it has great semi-realistic cops and robbers stuff, it lacks
a universal human appeal, which I think characterizes all the
movies in my list. Taxi Driver, while certainly a solid 4-
star movie, lacks the supreme ease of flow that Scorcese
demonstrates in Kundun and Casino. Moulin Rouge, while
breakthrough in its stylism, and a palatable love story (high
compliment from me), is weak in some of the musical numbers
in the third quarter of its progression. Etcetera. Keep in
mind that I put this together in one night, so it's
quite possible I haven't even thought of a few movies that
would be in my top 10.
The movies I've chosen are contemporary American movies. I
live in contemporary America...I'm not suited to liking
French character dramas. Notice that two of the top 10 (#2
and #3) were written by Quentin Tarantino. Also, two of my
top 10 (#1 and #7) are adapted from true stories. Notice
that there are no comedies on my top 10 list. Notice that in
9 of the 10 (excluding #1), someone gets killed, and in 8 of
the 10 a main character gets killed. Here are some brief
notes on why I like each of these movies:
1. The Insider
- no one dies, no one has sex, the dramatic climax is
embodied in an act that happens a hundred times in an
hour of sitting with someone, that people hardly ever
think about
- based on a true story, a story with extreme social
relevance, and a story that most people don't think is
very dramatic
- Al Pacino, Russel Crowe, and Diane Venora: awesome
- The Insider and American Beauty were nominated for Best
Picture in the same year. American Beauty won: the
Academy is smoking crack. That was the last year I
paid any attention to who won Best Picture, because
when American Beauty won over The Insider, the award
became meaningless to me.
2. Pulp Fiction
- This is the best screenplay ever written. It is the
best example of writing in the screenplay genre.
- This is the most relevant, most reflective movie made
about 1990s thought culture. If aliens came to me and
said, "We want to learn as much as we can in two
hours about American thought culture in the 1990s.", I
would tell them to watch Pulp Fiction.
3. Natural Born Killers (the director's cut)
- If the aliens had four hours, I would have tell them
to watch Pulp Fiction and Natural Born Killers.
- Juliette Lewis is brilliant. This is her best role.
4. Apocalypse Now (the director's cut)
- my favorite war movie
- The humor, like that in Natural Born Killers, makes
this movie superior to war tellings that aim to be
more strictly, classically realistic. You can keep
a straight face and hit me and it will hurt, but if
you punch me while you're laughing it will hurt more.
5. Leaving Las Vegas
- my favorite love story movie
- one of the best movies ever made that is more or less
about real people (even though they're fictional)
- Nicolas Cage's best role
6. Silence of the Lambs
- my favorite scary movie
- the best psycho villain ever created
- perfect plot symmetry, subtle irony: In a context of
normative, correctional activities (the FBI),
the "heroes", in order to catch a criminal (and save
the day) are forced to release a criminal of greater
magnitude. This is probably the best pop-culture
embodiment of the irony and absurdity that is intrinsic
to the whole idea of legal justice.
7. Casino
- Sharon Stone's best role
- gangster shit
- awesome pacing, interweaving, sequencing of stories:
This is one of the first short-seeming long movies.
Without this movie, I don't think there would have been
Magnolia-, Heat-, or The Insider-type movies: long
movies whose slightly nonlinear progression makes them
go by smoothly. Short Cuts pre-dates all these, but
is a poorer example of this type of pacing.
8. Hamlet 2000
- I just like Hamlet and the scenery in this telling
allows the contemporary mind to relax into the story,
while masterfully presenting the text.
- Hamlet playing with recorded video: good
- Ophelia in the Guggenheim: scary good
9. Requiem for a Dream
- Like Pi, stylistically next. Darren Aronofsky is
inventing the style that television, movies, and new
media will employ in 15-20 years.
10. Lolita (the Jeremy Irons/Dominique Swain version)
- Such a complete portrait of desolation, of tragic
characters, appeals to me.
- The photography doesn't fail to fetishize the violence
that is being exchanged between the four main
characters. In the scene where Irons grabs Swain by
the wrist, the shots are almost completely a bay of
white with red accents. There are other examples in
the film.
posted by a c at
6:24 AM
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